Christmas Sushi

There's a new tradition in the Taylor household: a fresh lobster dinner on Christmas, generously provided by Matt's uncle John.  Last year, Matt and I decided on vegetarian sushi as a fitting side dish (or a main dish, for me), and it was such a hit that we decided to repeat it again for 2011.  (As a side note, we have to thank Mark and Colleen for initiating us into the art of homemade veggie sushi!)

The key is a good sushi rice recipe and a willingness to chop veggies into thin strips.  Luckily, both are pretty easy.

Christmas Sushi Rice for 8

4 c sushi rice
6 c water
1 c rice vinegar
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1/2 c sugar
2 tsp salt

1 package of sushi nori (ten sheets)

(Makes enough sushi for the picture above, plus about a cup or two of extra rice)

Making the rice: Wash the rice in a large colander until the water runs as clear as possible.  We generally wash the rice in small batches so it's a bit more manageable, but in the end we usually end up washing the rice for at least 20 mins or so.  It takes some patience.  Combine rice and water in a large saucepan and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to low, cover and cook for about 20 mins.  All of the water should be absorbed, and the rice should be soft and a bit sticky.  Move rice into a large pyrex bowl to cool.

In a small saucepan, combine vinegar, oil, sugar, and salt.  Cook over medium heat until all of the sugar dissolves, then cool.  Add to the rice and stir gently to mix.  The mix will seem very wet, but the rice will absorb some of this moisture as it continues to cool.

Assembling the sushi: while the rice is cooking, slice desired veggies into small thin strips.  We like to use red peppers, cucumbers (with seeds removed), avocado, steamed shitake mushrooms, and carrots.  This year we also tried slices of champagne mango (to be paired with crushed peanuts for a mango-peanut roll, yummy!).  Lay out one bamboo sushi mat, then place a large sheet of saran wrap on top of that.  Place a piece of nori on top of the saran wrap, and carefully spoon about 5-6 tablespoons of rice onto the nori (usually we use a large serving spoon to move a big spoonful of rice, then use fingers to spread the rice evenly over about 4/5 of the nori).  Add a strip of veggies, roll, and seal the edge with water.  Slice into sushi pieces with a sharp knife.

This year, we tried the following rolls:

mango + crushed peanut
cucumber
avocado + cucumber
red and yellow pepper
mushroom
and an all-veggie combo roll with everything above

Ita daki mas!

Castle Rock State Park

Today we went to Castle Rock State Park with our good friend Brad for some much-needed outdoor time.  It's hard to believe we haven't been hiking since Half Dome, which was mid-September!  We did our favorite 5 mile loop and stopped periodically for great views and impromptu freestyle rock-climbing.

Homemade blackberry jam, bread, and butter

Last weekend the Milk Pail had containers of blackberries for super cheap. Since making homemade cranberry sauce, pies, whipped cream, stuffing, turkey, and other delicious things for Thanksgiving didn't quite satiate our desire for cooking, we decided to embark on a day of homemade deliciousness. I  made up a recipe for blackberry jam (which thankfully turned out well) while Matt made bread and butter.


Blackberry jam
12 cups washed blackberries
4 cups sugar
1 cup orange juice
lemon juice from one lemon, plus zest

Directions:  In a large pot, combine ingredients and simmer until blackberries soften and begin to break apart, about 20-30 mins.  Separately, sterilize a bunch of jars (I filled about 10 jars of various sizes) in a pot of boiling water for at least 20 mins.  Transfer the jam to hot jars, tighten lids, and re-boil for about 10 minutes.

What 12 cups of blackberries look like

Boiling away and smelling delicious

The finished jam jars

Bread
1 cup warm water
2 teaspoons yeast
pinch of salt
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
~2.5 cups unbleached white flour
enough buttermilk for the top

Directions: Put yeast in warm water, along with a tiny bit of honey, sugar, or flour. After a few minutes there should be foam on top, which tells you the yeast is happily munching on the honey, and you should proceed. In a large bowl, add the water+yeast, the whole wheat flour, and about a cup of white flour. Mix together, then add salt. Slowly add the rest of the flour as you knead the dough. Knead for about 10 minutes. Let sit for 1 hour for the dough to rise. Punch down and let rise a second time. Punch down and form a loaf on a baking sheet. Let rise a final time. Brush the top of the loaf with buttermilk to brown.  Place in 375F oven for ~35 minutes.

Measuring and kneading

Freshly baked loaf

Butter
1 pint heavy cream
pinch of salt

Directions: Put heavy cream in a jar of at least double the volume. Let sit for a couple hours - apparently this works better with cream that is closer to room temperature. Shake the jar for about 20 minutes. After a little while the cream will double in volume and turn into whipped cream. Keep going! At a certain point it will seem like nothing is happening, but keep shaking. Eventually, and dramatically, the whipped cream will suddenly separate into a ball of butter surrounded by buttermilk. Keep going for a couple minutes. Open the jar and drain out the buttermilk - you can drink this, use in pancakes, or feed to your cat. Next, wash the butter with cold water by filling, shaking, and pouring out the jar ~10 times until the water runs clear. Next, you want to knead the butter. The goal is to get rid of any excess buttermilk, which will cause the butter to go bad. We used a spatula on a cutting board, but you could probably also do this with your hands under cold running water. Once you're satisfied that you got most of the buttermilk out, add a pinch of salt to the butter, scoop into a container, and refrigerate.

ready set go!

Shake shake shake!

Pouring off the buttermilk

We made butter!

Enjoying the fruits of our labors

Napa

This weekend Stacey and I went for a scenic drive up to wine country. We visited William Hill, Robert Sinskey, Clos du Val, and Rutherford Hill Wineries.

Outside tasting area at William Hill Winery

The views from William Hill Winery, overlooking the vineyard

We next stopped at Clos du Val for more beautiful scenery and lots of fall color.

We stopped in at Sunshine Foods in St Helena to grab some picnic lunch items, then headed up to Rutherford Hill Winery for a picnic in their olive grove. The weather was perfect for a leisurely lunch in the shade of the olive trees.

Finally, we stopped at Wine Country Chocolates in Glen Ellen for a box of the most delicious chocolates ever. We ended up with a box of pumpkin ganache, amaretto, coconut, and cinnamon + clover honey truffles. We ate them all before we could take a picture of them, so you'll have to use your imagination.

All of the photos from the day can be found here.

Pumpkin chocolate chip "breakfast" cookies

I got this recipe for pumpkin chocolate chip cookies from a friend of mine and decided to try them out.  They turned out surprisingly well!  The first bite is unexpectedly subtle, I think because you expect them to taste like old fashioned chocolate chip cookies.  But the pumpkin and spices are a nice surprise.


Recipe adapted from this one on Allrecipes.com.


Pumpkin chocolate chip cookies

• 1 cup canned pumpkin
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon milk
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
• 
  
• Combine pumpkin, sugar, vegetable oil, and egg. In a separate bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, ground cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Dissolve the baking soda with the milk and stir in. Add flour mixture to pumpkin mixture and mix well.  Add vanilla, chocolate chips and nuts.  Drop by spoonful on greased cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for approximately 10 minutes or until lightly brown and firm.  Enjoy with a tall glass of milk!

Montalvo Gardens

This past weekend we took a recommendation from two good friends and went to explore Montalvo Arts Center in Saratoga, CA. The trip is worth it just for the ridiculous mansions you pass on the way there, but the garden art installations and peaceful woodland setting make this one of our new favorite spots. It helped that on the day we visited, Oct 30, there were very few people there -- my guess was that most people were busy with Halloween activities. The little town of Saratoga seemed to be having a mid-afternoon trick-or-treat session for all the kids, with almost all of the shopkeepers on Main St handing out candy.  

We strolled through the woods briefly and then explored the grounds, stopping periodically on a shady bench to soak up the gorgeous fall day.  We'll be back soon for a picnic on the lawn (or maybe a concert at the amphitheater?), most definitely.

Plastic flower installation + Matt

Wishing Tree, by Yoko Ono 

(Some of the wishes were very sweet, some were hilarious -- one of the most memorable was a child who could barely write wishing for a MacBook Air.  Ah, Silicon Valley)

Birdhouse tree

We stopped to sit on one of these benches for a while.  We were the only ones in this section, and it was very quiet.  We watched the light and shadows on the persimmon trees.  

Persimmons are rather beautiful fruits, aren't they?

Fall leaves! This was the view looking up from our bench.

Oops, it's November...

And we haven't posted much lately. Granted, we did go to Yosemite and hike Half Dome. So, there's that. Also, Matt got a new job, and I traveled to Atlanta briefly and worked absolutely way too many hours in October.

We did manage to squeeze in some fun in the last month or so. For starters, we went to an awesome Bluegrass Festival in SF with friends, visited Harley Farms (again), spent a day picking pumpkins in Pescadero, planted some new veggies, and toured Montalvo Gardens in Saratoga. We also enjoyed lots of yummy autumn-themed food, which apparently is the only thing I've been taking photos of lately. Here's a sampling:

Matt and I went to our favorite pumpkin patch in Pescadero for pumpkins. Matt is also demonstrating inadvertently here that it is still in the 80s here on most days.

We've been roasting and eating a lot of chestnuts.

We discovered a new organic produce stand. 

Look at the amazing texture on those eggs!  The white ones were actually a very pale shade of blue.

Sweet potatoes have made a come-back in our diets lately.  Here's a rosemary potato dish I conjured up for last Saturday's brunch.

New additions to the garden - Kale!

Swiss chard!

English peas!

The peas are growing so fast they've climbed out of their anti-squirrel cage already. Time for another trip to the hardware store...